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CM/PSOM recheck after one year

Hi,
My dog, Bee, was diagnosed with CM and PSOM a year ago. He had MRI and myringotomy done to both ears. His ear scratching reduced quite a bit afterward but he still does ear scratching.
i took him in for a recheck with dermatologist and she said the only way to know for sure if glue ear comes back or not is to do another MRI. I am concerned as to the side effect of MRI. If your dog has similar condition, please share your thoughts.
thanks
Kitty

Well since PSOM and CM are painful conditions and your dog is showing signs of pain or something annoying, the scratching....I personal who have another MRI if the derm is recommending it. I would think the concerns of my dog living in pain would out weight the risks of MRI for me. Personal opinion only.

However, if you and the derm feel your dog is only showing mild scratching and no other sign of pain (research signs of pain in a cavalier- some are hard to decode) then I would wait and see the derm again in say 6 months to recheck or when and if you see more signs of pain. Or possibly get a second opinion, maybe you just need to watch and make notes of your dogs scratching, write down, date, time how long is lasted would all be helpful information, to help you and the Dr. figure out how much scratching he is doing. CM is a progressive condition, PSOM can show up again too I'm guessing. So re-scanning is something you will be facing at one point. Of maybe not. Do you see a Nero for the CM? Maybe its time to do that if you have not. If you do there's your second opinion right there.

My Ebony has CM and it is symptomatic meaning it courses her to scratch. You need to see a Neuroagist as if the scratching is coursed by CM your dog needs to be on pain medication like my Ebony is on Gabapentin 3x day and she is also on Zitac. Please be aware that is isn’t only SM that courses scratching and pain CM can do the same. And scratching means pain.

Hi
My Daisy is similar, last August she was diagnosed with SM and PSOM and her neuro Mr G Skerritt considered that as she was showing no visible sign
of pain the decision was not to medicate her then and to leave her PSOM which is only to side alone .We went back three weeks ago for a check up and after further examination Daisy is now on 2x100mg Gabapentin and 3x50mg Zitac ,we go back tomorrow for another check up .I again mentioned her PSOM but the decision once more was to leave it alone.She now has a Grade 4 murmur and is under a Cardiologist for treatment for that and we consider this to be the biggest threat to her life, but of course we will medicate her SM for pain relief . Her SM scratching is mild so far and as Gabapentin only has a cover for 8 hours I may ask that it increases to 3x100 mg daily but of course that is up to her neuro to advise ,but because of her heart condition I would not consider a full GA appropriate at this time.

Well since PSOM and CM are painful conditions and your dog is showing signs of pain or something annoying, the scratching....I personal who have another MRI if the derm is recommending it. I would think the concerns of my dog living in pain would out weight the risks of MRI for me. Personal opinion only.

Melissa

Good advice!

My Dougall was diagnossed with cm and psom in both ears when he was 18 months old. I made the decision not to opt for surgery for either (a very personal choice).
I have been told if I opted for the psom surgery the chances are it would come back. Dougall suffers with back problems and is on medication and has treatment for this. Dougall has been scanned in total three times, the second time, psom had gone from one ear! the latest scan yesterday revealed he is exactly the same.

Dougall has recently developed new areas of sensitivity. I was very concerned him sm was developing into sm or he had injured himself in some way. The only way to be sure was to mri. We now at least know what we are dealing with and his medication has been changed.

but because of her heart condition I would not consider a full GA appropriate at this time

FWIW, I'd have no concerns at all for a Cavalier with her heart status to go under a general anesthesia - providing it was a good vet who used the appropriate protocol.

Also - on a different topic - colonoscopy in the US is always done under a general anesthesia - usually propofol. Most of us get our first routine screening colonoscopy at age 50 or so, and I've never known anyone (including myself) to have any problem with the procedure. Well, other than what you have to go through the night before as you "clean out" your entire system!! I can't imagine having a colonoscopy with no anesthesia!

We have now decided that her cyst/wart has to be removed and it is being done by Chestegates who have their own surgeon and anesthetist who will
be in attendance ,so she will be having a controlled GA ,I think I may ask them to have a quick peek at her teeth while she is there .I asked Dawn about her procedures
and she sad they sedated while they did the endoscophy but when finished with that just went straight into the endoscopy with no futher sedation so she was wide awake .

We go back next Thurs to see the consultant who still want it done but he will suggest with a full GA this time which Dawn is happy with apart from swolling all that liquid again .

I meant in my other post I would not allow Daisy to have another GA just to see if theeres any progression with her SM by full MRI with GA ,due to her heart condition

Brian I don't think anyone recommends doing random MRIs just to check progression in a dog unless there are clear reasons for doing so (eg a decision about surgery, or for research, etc) so I wouldn't even consider it anyway.

Best of luck to Dawn; she has been through a lot (as have you all) and hope a full GA will ease her anxiety about having the colonoscopy.

On the original post: I wouldn't MRI unless you are seeing significant symptoms again. Unfortunately PSOM more often then not recurs one or more times after a myringotomy according to researchers. But there is very little risk with MRIs, no more than any other (brief as well!) procedure requiring sedation or a GA.

However an MRI isn't the only diagnostic tool and do not understand why there would need to be an MRI. My dog had another type of far less costly scan at the vet med school here for getting the needed info to do a myringotomy -- can't remember what it was though.

One of my dogs had a myringotomy for PSOM, it is a fairly straightforward procedure that your vet may be able to carry out. Obviously I would not even consider anyone except a specialist to carry out procedures for CM/SM. With PSOM they cut a tear in the eardrum and then flush out the middle ear to remove the exudate [after first flushing the ear to remove wax, debris etc so that that does not contaminate the middle ear]

Sometimes vets can see if the eardrum is bulging just using their normal equipment, so it might be worth asking them to check that first.

Hi,
just want to share some info regarding CM/PSOM.
I made the decision to do another MRI after Bee was checked by Cardiologist and has no murmur.
His CM condition is very mild, PSOM on one ear only so his CM med now is reduced to 2.5mg, 1 daily omeprazole. He used to take 5mg daily omeprazole.
for PSOM, I will need to have his ear flushed. I don't know if NAC supplement is helpful or not but only one ear has the problem this time.
Kitty